Tableau Releases Version 8.0 with Over 90 New Features

Data visualization and analysis vendor Tableau Software has released version 8.0 of its analytics and visualization platform, with more than 90 news features to help organizations answer deeper questions about their data and integrate it across their organization. Web and mobile authoring enables drag and drop analytics in browsers and tablets, new data connections allow customers to interactively analyze large amounts of cloud data, and additional visualization types foster new ways to communicate with data. In addition, new APIs allow authors to integrate custom data, visualizations and dashboards into their applications and portals faster.

Tableau 8.0 allows for “analytics anywhere” with web and mobile authoring. “Now you’re able to author a brand new visualization directly in your browser or iPad with that same simplicity and ease of use Tableau is well known for,” Francois Ajenstat, Tableau’s director of product management, tells 5 Minute Briefing. Visual analytics include improved sets, groups and forecasting capabilities. “We’ve added tree maps and bubble clouds. They help you see data in new ways and answer questions that were harder to answer before, and now you can visualize your data in that new way to spot exceptions or see trends that weren’t possible,” Ajenstat explains. New connectors, including Google Analytics, Salesforce.com and Google BigQuery, allow customers to connect to any data with just a few clicks.

A new visualization engine in Tableau 8.0 allows for speed-of-thought analytics, and a new Javascript API and Data Extract API allows customers to integrate Tableau more deeply into their existing systems. “You can blend data in the cloud with data you have somewhere else very easily, which is an important differentiator for the product,” Ajenstat adds.